American literature between World Wars

After the World War I. a group of known as the „Lost generation“ entered literature. They were writers who were influenced by the war, some of they were on the service in the Army like Hemingway or Dos Passos. Their experience resulted in disillusionment. The best were Ernest Hemingway and Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for his famous book the Old Man and the Sea, which is about human strength for fighting both external natural things and bad sides of his character. Hemingway became a journalist after the World War I. A Farewell to Arms is one of the best novels about the World War I. It is a love story of an American Lieutenant in the Italian Ambulance Service and an English nurse. For Whom the Bell Tolls is a psychological picture of war on an episode from Spanish Civil War. One of the best parts of the novel is Robert Jordan’s monologue what beautiful place the world is and how much it is worth fighting for. His other famous novels are fiesta, Death in the Afternoon, A Moveable Feast a Islands in the Stream. Hemingway was a master in short story writing.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald is connected with the Jazz Age of the 20s. He wrote money stories about wealthy people, from whom everything is so easy because of money. It is in the book names Tales of the Jazz Age. The Great Gatsby is his best novel - about a very rich man who earns all his money by smuggling. He is doing this because he wants to be on the same level as Daisy, his former lover who had always been rich.

William Faulkner was also Nobel Prize winner. He was a Southerner who wrote a cycle of novels dealing with all possible problems of the South. To this cycle include the novels Light in August, As I Lay Dying, Absolon, Absolon!, The Sound of the Fury.

John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962. He tried to uncover the reasons of social injustice. The Grapes of Wrath describes the Depression following after the crisis of 1929. This novel is a picture of a poor family which is exploited by the fruit-growers in California. His other works are Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, East of Eden…

Theodore Dreiser had a proletarian childhood he became a reporter, editor and novelist. In his naturalist novels he showed the ugly sides of American Life - it is in Sister arrie. His masterpiece is An American Tragedy. His Hero is negative, he becomes a murderer, but it is not the hero who is to blame but the society and the system.

Sinclair Lewis was a little bit younger than Theordore Dreisler, and particularly agree with him. He was the first US writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1930. He deals mainly with a small town in the Middle West and its middle-class citizens. He wrote Main Street, Arrowsmith and Babbit.

Classic American literature.

The classic American literature brought among the members of the important literatures of the world. The first author is Washington Irving, essayist, story writer, historian and biographer. He wrote a large biography of George Washington, history of New York. One of his well-known book is The Sketch Book.

James Fenimore Cooper was brought up in a pioneer settlement, with plenty of time to be with American Indians and talk to them. He became a widely read author of novels of heroism and adventure - mainly the Leather-Stockings Tale - The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers and The Prairie. The chief character of the series is Natty Bumppo ( = Deerslayer, Hawkeye, Pathfinder, Leather-Stocking. In him Cooper idealised the typical frontiersman of the early pioneering epoch.

Well-known author is Edgar Allan Poe, he was born in Boston, spent some time in England, and then he returned to America and studied at the University of Virginia for a year. He tried to write poetry but wasn’t successful until 1845 when he published The Raven. He was a journalist and edited several American magazines in which he published his literary criticism and some short stories. He invented a new literary form, the detective story. He wrote The Gold Bug, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and The Purloined Letter. The tales of terror, a hangover from Goticism, are represented by The Descendent into the Maelstrom, describing the fisherman who escapes the whirlpool, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Pit and the Pendulum. His The Masque of the Red Death is grotesque and terrible.

Mark Twain is one of the greatest US authors. He comes from the South and he worked as a steamboat on the Mississippi river. „Mark twain“ is a river-man’s phrase meaning two-pathorms-deep. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He became famous as humorist and story-taller. His novel Gilded Age gave the name to the whole period after the Civil War. This book is bitter satire in one period of the get-rich-quick years in the second half of the 19th century. His best books are based on his own experience along Mississippi - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These books describe the adventures of boyhood. Tom is portrait of a frontier boy. Huck is a free boy. Twains other works are The Celebrated Jumping Frog, The Innocents Abroad, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Life on the Mississippi.

Jack London became very popular due to describing adventurous life at the time of the gold rush, it is in his work The Call of the Wild. Martin Eden is a novel about a man who wants to be successful, archive education and get himself to higher and better society. At the end he commit a suicide. This novel is autobiographical. His other works are The White Fang,The Sea-Wolf, The Son of the Wolf.

Herman Melville was the greatest symbolist, he sailed on seas for many years. His experience at sea were the basis for almost all his novel. The most famous novel is Moby-Dick, the symbolic story of captain Ahab, a free man. Striving against his own fate, for which Moby-Dick - the white whale - means evil. The book culminates in the tension of the three-day hunt of Moby-Dick which ends disaster - Captain Ahab, who wants to fight Moby-Dick alone, is pined to whale’s body by his own harpoon.

Describing people

I have never had many friends. First friends I met, when I began attending kindergarten. Friends changed with changing the school. Only one girl attended with me kindergarten and first three classes of basic school. Her name was the same as mine - Jitka. She was as tall as me, had shoulder-length blond and straight hair and blue eyes. She was very agile, and had a good sense of humour. She attended with me also a pioneer club, where I had also some friends, but nobody of them was so good friend as Jitka was. I lost any contact with her when my family moved away.

When we moved away I started attending new school. There I met many new children. Some of them became my friends. The bets was Helena, I think. She had black long straight hair, brown eyes and she was higher than me. She wore it long to her shoulders, sometimes loose, sometimes done in a chignon. She was very intelligent she had always best marks. I could with her discus about many things, about science, about books, or only talking. She has played accordion since she was eight. Unfortunately, when I started attending the grammar school I met her only sometimes. Now she attends university, the pedagogical faculty.

When I started to attend the grammar school I also met many new people. I cannot say that somebody of them is my best friend but friends I have among then. The best of them is Lucie, I thing. She is about one head smaller than me, have chestnut short wavy hair. Her eyes are green. She is agreeable, intelligent, loves animals especially horses and dogs. She wants to study history at philosophical faculty. She is a member of a riding club and every minute of her spare time she devotes to horses.

I have also another friends. I thing the friends from holidays. I attended camps and there I met Kateřina, I called she Kaťa, because she lives in the part of the Czech Republic called Slovácko and people there speak with a dialect. I met she about three years ago. She is old as I, I'm about two weeks older. She has shoulder length straight black hair, dark-brown eyes and she is a little bit taller than me. Her character is very similar as mine. She is agile, intelligent, loves animals and nature. In one side is different. She grew up with two brothers, so she behaves a little bit like a boy. She studies a secondary school the polytechnique with a view to instruments. Now she is just on the university where she continue in her brunch.

Now about my boyfriend. His name is Aleš. We met about one and half year ago in special dance course. In the beginning we were only friends, he in this time visited the dance club, and he invited me there, I started attend this club and as the time went we falled in love. He has chestnut short hair, changed colour eyes, is taller than me and he is about two and half year older than me. He is intelligent and has two big hobbies sport dancing and electronics. He studies electronics on the polytechnics university, now he is in the fourth semester. He is not self-centred, on the contrary, he is sensitive to other people's problems, tries understand them and help if he can. He does not get irritated easily and very rarely is in bad mood. He has a sense of humour and his whole disposition is optimistic. We say that we so long searched each other until we found each other. Though we have many things in common - dancing, travelling, nature - and share the same opinions, I must say that he also has some faults. He is a little bit fat, is too sensitive on his failure and spends too much money on the electronic components. But, I love him very much, and I hope that I never lose him.

English speaking countries

This term is used for the countries where the majority of population speaks English as their mother language. They are : Great Britain, Ireland, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Besides these countries there are large areas where English is spoken as second language - it is in India, Pakistan, the Republic of South Africa and other African countries. Generally speaking, English is spoken in the USA, Ireland and in the Commonwealth countries.

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of Britain and 47 her former colonies (together over 1 billion people). It developed in the 1st half of this century when Britain gave self-government to her dominions. Founding members were Britain, Canada, Newfoundland, Australia and New Zealand. Later the Commonwealth included money African, Asian, South American and Caribbean nations. Member countries cooperate to encourage world peace, social understanding, racial equality and economic development. The Queen of England is the formal head in 17 countries, former dominions, and this are for example Canasa, Australia and New Zealand.

So, now about English language. Nowadays about 400 million people use English which means that English is the most widespread language in the world. It has become a world language - it is used not only as a native language but also for practical purposes - in administrative, business, technology, education, sport, aviation…

Victorian literature

Victorian period in history of England was one of the most famous periods. In this time was the British imperium the biggest. Queen Victoria governed about sixty-five years. She died in the year 1901. This period is also known as a period of Critical Realism.

Most know authors of this periods were sisters Brontë. So, I am going to tell you about one of sister Brontë, about Charlotte. She had fife relatives, one brother and four sister. Two of them were writer too. She was the daughter of pastor, and her mother died when she was small. Her first novel was Professor, but this novel didn't have success. Success had her second novel names Jane Eyre. She wrote too Shirley and Villlette. Her last work was Emma, but she died sooner finished writing. This was in the year 1855.

Jane is an orphan and live by her aunt. The family of her aunt is rich and has two children. The aunt hated Jane, and one day send she to boarding school. The live in this school is hard, few meal, and bad accommodation. She start to be a very good student, and when she graduate this school she started to teach there. One day she decide to leave the school and became to be a tutor by family of mister Rotchester. His wife is dead ant he has two children. After some time the falling in love and the want to marry together. During the wedding ceremony one man says, that Rotchester's first wife still live. This is true, but she is madwoman and next night she put fire under a house. Jane leave and a few days she live like a beggar-women. She stay in a family of pastor and she teach in the school. After some time Mr. Rotchester find her and they live together.

Other well known author was Charles Dickens. He described truly the life of the poor people in England in the 19th century. He combines comic and serious situation and accuses both the aristocracy and the middle class of acting heartlessly towards the common people. He himself suffered in his childhood and his bitter experience can be found in his works. Among his major novels belong: Little Doritt, David Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, Great Expectators and Oliver Twist.

Among other authors of critical realism belong William Makepeace Thackeray who wrote novels against snobbery and hypocrisy. His main novel is Vanity Fair where he compares the career of two different characters - gentle and decent Amelia and deceitful adventures Becky Sharp.

Other popular author was Oscar Wilde. He wrote fairy story The Canterville Ghost. The ghost, almost driven mad by the tricks of the Otis twins, this is in an American family, was rescued from everlasting misery by the tears of fair maiden, and „dies happaly- ever after“. The ugly side of the supernatural can be found in Wilde's novel The picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde is also famous for his fairy tales, that are but very sad, especially The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose. He wrote also sode theatre plays, my favourite is his crazy comedy How important is have Philip.

Sports and games

Sports are very good for active relaxation and are important for our physical and mental health. Each country, each nation has its own system of physical education. There are lots of types of sports and games. We can practise out- door or indoor sports, in water or anywhere we want.

Outdoor sports and games are as follows : golf, skiing (cross - country, down - hill, slalom, ski - jump), tobogganing, bobsledding, marathon - running, jogging, fishing, climbing, hiking or tourismus, mountaineering, rallies, polo, cycling, hunting, archery, motorracing, jogging, horse riding and horse - racing. There are 2 forms of racing : flat racing and steeple -- chasing (racing with jumps). The outstanding events in flat racing are Derby, run at Epsom, the Royal Ascot, run at Ascot near Windsdor. The best known steeple - chase is the Grand National, run at Aintree near Liverpool.

Many sports have their origins in Britain that is why Britain is sometimes called the cradle of sports. Two types of rugby, modern game of hockey, cricket, darts, tennis and boxing were invented in Britain. Golf has its origins in Scotland. Very popular sports are : cricket, football, golf, cricket has never been adopted in foreign countries. It is intensively played only in the United Kingdom, Australia and some other Commonwealth countries. The major sports events in Britain are Wimbledon (the Grand Slam Tennis Tournament), the British Open Golf Championship, The Grand National in Liverpool (it is the best known horse-race steeplechase).

Typical American sports and games are : baseball, American football, netball (it s an outdoor version of basketball), lacrosse. Baseball is the most popular professional game in the USA. Baseball has probably originated from the English cricket before the middle of the 19th century. Lacrosse is derived from an American Indian game and there are many variants in the rules. Every year there are a lot of sports events. The most important of them are summer and winter Olympic Games. It is the first sport festival which took a place in Greece on 776 BC The Olympics were held every four years in Olympia. During them no war was to be led. And now they are also held every four years, but their summer and winter parts are changed once every two years.

Some other important sports events are the World and European Championships and Cups in various sports. (the Football Association Cup Final played at Wembley stadium in May) Each of us can be a sportsman, but not everyone can be a god on.

A good sportsman must be healthy ( though there are also sports events for the handicapped ), and non-smoker. He should do everything to excel in his sport, listen to his coach and devote most of his/her leisure time to it. He/she must train very hard and should have a fair character.

Lots of people take part in sports activities, millions of them like to attend matches, watch television or listen to them on the radio and cross their fingers for their favourite individuals or teams.

If somebody wants to be fit, it s good to go in for some exercise, e.g. swimming, cycling, jogging, walking at every available opportunity, etc. It is very important to exercise regularly, at least three times a week. My favourite is ballroom dancing. Many people things that dance is only a free-time activity, and that dance is very simple but it isn't so. Dance is very nice but also very demanding, expensive and time-consuming activity. Dance is demanding because you must bust be perfect, when you want be successful on competition; expensive because the fee is high (include the salary for lector and letting of the hall or gymnasium), you must participate on the concentrations, you must have special dance shoes and when you participate on the competition, you must have special dance cloths - different for standard dances and Latin dances, for example, clothes for standard daces costs at least about 15 000 Crowns, and you must have every year new; and time-consuming because I must train three time in the week, and this mean about 10 hours of training weekly (I do dancing about fife months, the best of dancers have the training six or seven times in the week, this mean about 20 per week). Ballroom dancing have two parts: standard-dances which include waltz, Wiener waltz, tango, slowfoxtrot and quickstep; and latin-dances which include cha-cha, rumba, samba, jive and paso doble.

Services

I’ll tell you about Postal Services in Britain and in the USA. So now about Postal Services in Britain. Letter boxes are in the shape of red pillars. In major towns each pillar-box has information on where the nearest post office can be found. The postal vans are red to.

Postage stamps cannot be bought at the tobacconist's. They can be either obtained from slot machines, which have three denominations, or bought separately or in the form of the books of stamps at the postal office.

The main post office in a area is called the General Post Office or the G. P. O., for a short.

Passport or money, generously the valuables, are sent in registered letters, not any important message as in Czech Republic.

British stamps do not have the word „Britain“ on them. On English stamps, there is a small portrait of Queen or the King, usually in the corner of the stamp.

The postman does not deliver money to the house. He brings the addressee a postal order or a money order in an envelope and the addressee goes to the post office to exchange the order for cash. The postman brings also family allowances.

The Post Office Tower in London is the tallest building in Britain. there is a revolving restaurant at the top.

The Post Office places advertisements encouraging people to write more letters. An example of such an advertisement : „Someone somewhere is expecting a letter from you“.

The other service is for example the emergency dialling service, with the phone number 999. There is connect the police, ambulance or fire department.

So now about services in the USA. The mailbox are placed on street corners and have blue colour. The openings are large enough for book parcels.

The zip code is group of five numbers, whereas in Britain the postcode is a group of letters and numbers. The other postal services are similar than in Britain.

From the phone box in the street you can make long-distance calls. You put the money according to the operator’s instructions

You can find the phone number in the phone book. In USA is a special volume called the Yellow pages in all major cities. Here you can find addresses and phone numbers of all repairmen and special services.

In USA is also a emergency dialling service, which number is 911. There is as Britain connected police, ambulance service and fire department.

My favourite writer

I haven’t only one favourite writer, so, I’ll tell you about some of my favourite books. So, I am going to tell you about one of sister Brontë, about Charlotte. She had fife relatives, one brother and four sister. Two of them were writer too. She was the daughter of pastor, and her mother died when she was small. Her first novel was Processor, but this novel didn't have success. Success had her second novel names Jane Eyre. She wrote too Shirley and Villlette. Her last work was Emma, but she died sooner finished writing. This was in the year 1855.

Jane is an orphan and live by her aunt. The family of her aunt is rich and has two children. The aunt hated Jane, and one day send she to boarding school. The live in this school is hard, few meal, and bad accommodation. She start to be a very good student, and when she graduate this school she started to teach there. One day she decide to leave the school and became to be a tutor by family of mister Rotchester. His wife is dead and he has two children. After some time the falling in love and the want to marry together. During the wedding ceremony one man says, that Rotchester's first wife still live. This is true, but she is madwoman and next night she put fire under a house. Jane leave and a few days she live like a beggar-women. She stay in a family of pastor and she teach in the school. After some time Mr. Rotchester find her and they live together.

I’ll tell you something about prose-writer William Styron. He publish in the year 1979 a novel Sophie's Choice. This novel has three main characters. They are Sophia Zawistowska, a polish immigrant, her lover Nathan Weistein and a writer Stingo. A plot come about a summer and a autumn of the year 1947. There is also a retrospective to the year 1943 and also to the more distant past. The writer Stingo met the polish immigrant Sophia and her lover in the summer of the year 1947. Her lover Nathan Weinstein is a narcomaniac and a schizophrenic. The relations ship of the Sophia and Nathan is pathologic. Stigo is attracted to Sophia. Sophia remember to her live in concentration camp Osvětim, and also on her live before her arrest. In this time she shell poll where she take part on antifascist fight. This is her first choice. After her arrest she shell poll among her children, who come to gas, and who stay with she. This is her second choice. The esesman names Jemanden von Niemandem, this is a symbol, in English this names means Anybody from Nowhere. In the concentration camp she work like a secretary of a commander of the concentration camp, names Rudolf Höss. Sophia is desperate, she feel guilty, at the end she commit a suicide. This is her third choice. This is an antiracist and humanistic novel.

When I attended primary school, the compulsory book for reading was the book by Daniel Defoe The Life and Strange Stories of Robinson Crusoe. In Czech the name „Robinson“ means a person living alone on an island. This word come from the name of main character of this book. Crusoe is wrecked off an uninhabited island. With the help of a few stores and utensils saved from the wreck and great cleverness and skill he builds himself a house, which is particularly in the cave, domesticates some animals, and makes a boat. After eighteen lonely years he finds a human footprints in the sand. He finds out that island is visited from time to time by cannibal savages. Later he rescues one of their victims and names him Friday. The native proves an honest and faithful servant and the two of the are eventually rescued by an English ship in the twenty-eight year of Crusoe's residence on the island.

Music and arts

We divide arts in three main parts - to literature, which include drama, short stories, poetry, biographies and others styles of literature, the second part are performing arts, which include dance, cinema, theatre, ballet, concerts and opera, the third part of arts are fine arts, this are painting and sculpture. Music and arts are very old, as old as is mankind. For example small flutes from bone have been found. This flutes come from the primitive times and also very ancient painting in caves like Altamira and Lascaux, in caves and also in other places were found small statuettes of people, shootable and holy animals. We know the most beautiful paintings, statues and other things of Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and other nations of ancient world. From Middle Ages coming first known artists, like Leonardo da Vinci, MichelangeloBuanarotti and many others.

We come into contact with music and arts through our whole live. Every nation have its own folk art. Our country has many districts, where different folk art is produced. Folk music include lullabies, carols, love songs… We can divide music in two main parts: classical music and pop music. This isn't exact, because it depends on personal meaning. Everybody knows classical composers like Johan Sebastian Bach, who wrote for example many Fugas, Antonio Vivaldi who wrote The four seasons, Ludwig van Beethoven and his Fatal Symphony (IX., closes the music festival of Prague Spring ), and many piano concerts, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose music composition are for example Magical Flute, Figaro's wedding and The Small Night Music and many and many other. In pop music we know better the interpreters than the composers, we know Ella Fitzgerald, who sings jazz, her own songs and she is celebrated for her smooth interpretation of George Gershwin's songs; everybody knows Elvis Presley, called The king of rock'n'roll, who was born in Memphis in Tennessee, and made many hits like "Love me Tender" and "Don't", since the year 1950 he also made some films like Loving You, and he died in 1977; one of most popular pop groups from 1960 to 1970 were The Beatles, The members, all born in Liverpool, were John Lennon, who was killed in 1980, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They sang songs written by Lennon and McCartney, and starred in two films A Hard Day's Night and Help. Today there are many pop music interpreters for example Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Madonna, Elton John, Whitney Houston, Sting, and groups like Tic Tac Toe, The Rolling Stones, Kelly Family, Spice Girls and so on.

Now about painting and sculptors. As was I just said, first paintings were found in Altamira and Lascaux. during renaissance lived the famous artists especially Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, sculptor and a noted inventor. He painted well known Mona Lisa, Lady with the ermine etc. The next big artist of this age was Michelangelo Buanarotti, he made the statue of David, the Pieta, he made the fresco in Sixtin chapel and many and many other. From later times comes for example William Turner who painted romantic landscapes and was anticipated Impressionism, his pictures are Rain, Steam and Speed. Most of his works are displayed in the Core Gallery and in the Tate Gallery of London. Best known from modern artist are Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, but of course not only they.

Money

There are a lot of people in the world who are able to do everything for having many or to become rich. Such people don’t usually earn their many in the right way. Some for them do great cheats, others use their money for illegal activities. Some are able to steal or even to murder for money. That’s why some people mean money is the root of an evil but not of all evil. There are plenty of other thing people making bad in the world.

Money has a lot of shapes : notes are mostly oblong, coins, are circle. Some of them are angular, The notes are usually differently coloured and coins are made from different metals. Each note and coin has its own reverse and observe, and each country has its own currency.

Each family has its own budget. Students usually get a pocket money for their small expenses and learn how to economise with them. Parents cover the other expanses. People putting money aside can deposit or invest it, they can have an account. Most popular place of deposit money is a bank. There you usually have a current account, which is one where you pay in your salary and then withdraw money to pay your everyday bills. The bank sends you a regular bank statement telling you how much many you have on your account. You may have a savings account where you deposit any extra money that you have and only take money out when you want spend it on something special. You usually try to avoid having an overdraft or you end up paying a lot of interest. If your account is overdrawn, you can be said to be in the red, in the opposite to be in the black or in credit.

Sometimes you need lend some money, than you go to the bank, and when you have fortune you get a bank loan, If the bank lends you money to buy a house or a flat, that money is called a mortgage.

Now something about buying and selling. When you buy something in a shop, you usually for it outright, anly sometimes buy you on credit. Sometimes you may be offered a discount or a reduction on something in the shop, it is usually when you are a student or you buy something in bulk. In our countries is not usual to haggle about prices, but for example in Turkish market you can haggle, here is haggling usual. If you want to return something which you bought to a shop, you may be given a refund or you money will be returned, provided you have a receipt.

The money that you pay for services - to a school or a lawyer, is usually called a fee or fees, the money you paid for a journey is fare.

Now about public finance. The government collects money from citizens trough taxes. Income taxes is the tax collection wages and salaries. Inheritance tax is collected on what people inherit from others. Customs or exise duties have to be paid on goods imported from other countries. VAT or value added tax is a tax paid on most goods and services when they are bought or purchased. Companies pay corporation tax on their profits. If you pay to much tax, you should be given some money back, a tax rebate.

The government also sometimes pays out money to people in need, it is for example unemployment benefit, also know as the dole - in is informally, disability allowances and students grants, to help pay for studying. There are also maternity benefits, sickness benefits and many other kindness of benefits.

Modern American literature

Modern American literature is the literature last fifty years. The authors are for example Norman Mailer. William Saroyan, Arthur Miller, Tenesse Williams and William Styron and many others.

I’ll tell you something about prose-writer William Styron. He publish in the year 1979 a novel Sophie's Choice. This novel has three main characters. They are Sophia Zawistowska, a polish immigrant, her lover Nathan Weistein and a writer Stingo. A plot come about a summer and a autumn of the year 1947. There is also a retrospective to the year 1943 and also to the more distant past. The writer Stingo met the polish immigrant Sophia and her lover in the summer of the year 1947. Her lover Nathan Weinstein is a narcomaniac and a schizophrenic. The relations ship of the Sophia and Nathan is pathologic. Stigo is attracted to Sophia. Sophia remember to her live in concentration camp Osvětim, and also on her live before her arrest. In this time she shell poll where she takes part on antifascist fight. This is her first choice. After her arrest she shell poll among her children, who come to gas, and who stay with she. This is her second choice. The esesman names Jemanden von Niemandem, this is a symbol, in English this names means Anybody from Nowhere. In the concentration camp she work like a secretary of a commander of the concentration camp, names Rudolf Höss. Sophia is desperate, she feel guilty, at the end she commit a suicide. This is her third choice. This is an antiracist and humanistic novel.

Now I’ll tell about Beat generation. This name is joint with John Holmes and with his novel Go. In the manuscript was the name Beat generation. John Holmes published also an article names This is the Beat Generation. The main representants are Allan Gingsberg, Jack Kerouack, William Burroughs and other. They practised free life, behaviour and new use of language. They were disgusted by corrupt, commercial and conventional world around them and hoped they can make their world better by some excitement given by drugs, drink and they were also influenced by Zen Buddhism teaching. Jack Kerouack wrote the bible of the Beat Group, names On the Road. This novel is about friends wandering on their motorcycles back and forth across the continent and shows us their „beat“ characters, their quest for experience, restlessness.

John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962. He tried to uncover the reasons of social injustice. The Grapes of Wrath describes the Depression following after the crisis of 1929. This novel is a picture of a poor family which is exploited by the fruit-growers in California. His other works are Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, East of Eden…

Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for his famous book the Old Man and the Sea, which is about human strength for fighting both external natural things and bad sides of his character.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald is connected with the Jazz Age of the 20s. He wrote money stories about wealthy people, from whom everything is so easy because of money. It is in the book names Tales of the Jazz Age. The Great Gatsby is his best novel - about a very rich man who earns all his money by smuggling. He is doing this because he wants to be on the same level as Daisy, his former lover who had always been rich.

Modern English literature

This topics many authors, so, I cannot tell you about all of them. I’ll begin with the famous author of the beginning of 20th century, with Rudyard Kipling. He was awarded the Nobel Prize as first British author in 1907. He lived in India, and wrote short stories about this country, and also about the sea, about the jungle and it’s animals. This stories are included in this two books - The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book.

Other author of this period was Herbert George Wells, who invented a new form of scientific romance, a kind of Utopian fiction, which gave birth to modern science fiction literature. He wrote many books in this style - his works are for example The Time Machine, The First Man on the Moon, The Invisible Man and the most famous book is The War of the Worlds. With this book depend one story, when this book was reading in the broadcast, people meaned that it is really report and they went to the panic.

From the beginning of this century comes also James Joyce. He together with Marcel Proust and Franz Kafka mark the turning point in a modern novel. He was born in Dublin, wrote an experimental prose using the stream of consciousness. Dubliners is a collection of short stories. His masterpiece is Ulysses. Homer’s Ulysses wandered for 20 years around the Mediterranean. Joyce’s Ulysses wanders around Dublin in the course of one day and all characters in the book correspond to the characters of the legend.

In poetry the most outstanding author T. S. Eliot, a Nobel Prize winner in 1948. In his cynical and comic poetry he shows the chaos and sterility of modern world, he shows the emptiness of life where everything loses its meaning.

At the beginning of the fifties brought the social situation in England a group of young novelist who spoke up for the undervalued university graduates from lower class families. They were angry with society and their anger gave itself as a name to the whole group - „Angry Young Men“. The most famous member of this group names Kingsley Amis. He is best known for his above novel, which was published in the first half of fifties. The name of this book is Lucky Jim.

William Golding is another Nobel Prize winner from the year 1983. He get it for his famous book Lord of Flies. This novel is exciting study of a party of English school boys who after an air-crash find themselves on a coral island surrounded by the sea. The boys form two groups, each representing a certain feature of the civilised man. One group is led by Ralph, who represents responsibility, honesty and mental party, the other by Jack, who embodies the desire for absolute power. The setting is a favourable environment in which the boys, left to themselves, are able to reveal their abilities and use the theories

which have been given to them trough education. But the evil, having been awakened from its slumber by the presence of fear and anger, proves to be stronger than the good. Before being rescued, they fight and even kill, even in spite of their previous education in England. The author’s pessimism is stressed by the symbolic title of the book, which is to remind one of the biblical personages, Beelzebub, Lord of Flies, one of the daemons representing negative powers in the development of the world.

Very famous writer was Aghata Christie. She is the most widely read author in the world. She is the Queen of detective story and wrote about 70 novels, 20 dramas, 15 short stories books and poems collections. Her books are - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Ten Little Niggers, Curtain, Sleeping Murder, one of the plays is The Mouse Trap.

Letter writing

The form of business letters is different from the form of private correspondence. Business letters are written on official paper with a letterhead, with full address of the sender printed at the top. The letter itself starts with the address of the addressee, on the left-hand side of the page. Below it you must fill in the numbers in "You reference:…" and "Our reference:…", for example the number of abbreviation under which copy of the letter has been field and the initials of the member of the staff or his typist. The date is written on right-hand side of the page.

In the letter to the firm, the formal greeting is „Dear Sirs“ in Britain and „Gentlemen“ in the USA or Canada. In a business letter to a stranger you write „Dear Sir“ or „Dear madam“. After the greeting is comma in British letters and colon in US letters. The message begins for example „We are pleased to inform you that…“ It is useful to make the message as clear and short as possible.

The letters is closed with „Yours sincerely“ in Britain and „Yours truly“ in the USA or Canada. After this phrases comes comma. When some materials is enclosed, this must be indicated. For example there are two items, you write „2 encl.“ or „Enclosures: 2“ below the left on the signature. If the name does not indicate whether the writer is man or woman, it is not uncommon to add in brackets (Mrs.), (Miss) o (Ms), if the writer is women.

The envelope of a business letter looks as I’ll describe you now. So, at the left top corner is the return address, which is in personal correspondence on the back of the envelope. Under this are postal intruditions, such as „By air mail“, „Printed matter“, „Please forward“, „Express post“ and other. In the left lower corner are special instructions as „Personal“, „Attention of Mr. X“. The address of addressee is on the right side. If the address isn’t permanent, it is written „c/o and after this is written the other address“ The postage stamps are in the top right-hand corner.

A personal letter is more cordial than business letter. There are greetings such as „With kindest regards to you both“, „Best wishes“, „With my best wishes“. In informal letters you may ask the addressee to pas greetings on to others: „Please remember me to you wife“, „Please give your parents my kindness regards“. The sender’s address is placed above the date, in the top right-hand corner, not below the signature as in Czech letters.

Jobs

There are two main parts of jobs - the manual jobs and the brain jobs. This difference is also in education and in the salary. The salary usually depends on personal education and on the work experiences.

Now I'll talking about the manual job. This type of jobs means that you in main part of your working hours do the manual work. The education is shorter that the preparing to the brain jobs. In the secondary school, by us you are on the secondary school from 15 years at least two years, this is only for the simplest jobs like a mason. The longer education can last three years for the cookers, for electrician, mechanic, miner or fisherman, there are also brunches, where you must have a graduation exam and than you must study four years, this jobs are, I think, watchmaker, shop assistant, decorator. There are also jobs where you need any education - a farmer and the house wife. There is also one special jobs, where you need some education, but can have this education in few weeks, I think, I don't it exactly, I think the driver, it is true, that you must be very good driver, when you want work like a driver, you can drive a taxi, a van, a lorry and a truck. You can be employ by a state company, and than you have usually smaller salary, because the state is a little bit poor. In the other hand you can be employed by a private firm, than you sometimes have a bigger salary, than in the same job in the state company, but you can have longer working hours, your boos can do the failure or other bad things. You can be also your own boss, but there is also many advantages and many disadvantages. The advantages are that you are your own boss, nobody tell you what you should to do, you can do what you like, but in the other hand you must work for long hours, sometime you haven't weekends, must work in the evening, you have many worries with bank loans, with taxes and with many other things.

Now about brain jobs. In this case you must have always at least the graduations exams. Only graduations exams you need when you want work as a receptionist, in this brunch you must good know foreign languages, secretary, accoutre and nurse. The further education you need when you want the better and more interesting job. In this case you must study at least four or five years, and when you want to be a doctor, you must study at least six years, and many other for postgradual education. You can divide brain job in four parts- in to economic sphere, the humanistic sphere, I think historian, languages teachers or theoretic, philosophic and many other, the second sphere is technique sphere, in this part are, by my mind, architects, machines engineers, electrotechicques engineers and also many others, the third parts is the economic sphere where works managers and economists, and the last part is the natural science brunches, biologics, chemicals, doctors of medicines, vet, mathematics, physicals and others. The special kind of jobs are the arts jobs, I think actors, dancers, painters, sculptures and many others.

House

Only some families live in a house, much more people live in a flat. We also. We live in a prefab, in a three - room flat with a kitchen and hall. There are two bedrooms one living room.

At first I'll talking about bedroom which I share with my younger sister. Our room is the smallest in a flat. In front of the door is one window. Next to the door in the right side are at the wall two wardrobes and on the left side are two low cases, on the more distant is the book-case. Next to the wardrobes on the right side is my bed, under which is a big drawer, where are my old books. Next my bed at the wall is a table at them is a chair. On the other side of bedroom is a bed of my sister under which is also a big drawer. Under the window are two small cabinets, where I and my sister have the textbooks. On the wall at the table is a picture of ancient map. Above my bed hang shelf, where I have some toys, some miniatures and other things. On the table is a radiomagnetophon. On the floor is a old carpet. On the wall are the light wallpaper.

In the second bedroom live my parents. Their room is the second largest room in the flat. The door is in the right corner in front of one window. At the right wall is a long feather-bedcase, a table and a computer, at which is a chair. Next to the door are two wardrobes. At the left wall are two beds and a chest of drawers. On the a long feather-bedcase is the TV.

The largest room in our flat is a living room. There are three doors first is in front of the windows, the second is in the right wall to the kitchen and the third is in front of the first door and lead to the balcony. On the right side are cases, on the left side is a lounge, next to this are two armchairs and a small table. In front of the table is the TV set and a videocasseterecorder, which are on the old stitcher. On the floor is a imitation of Persian carpet. At the small table stand a lamp. On the wall are light wallpaper.

Our kitchen is very stupid situated, because is very narrow. In the right corner in front of the window is cooker with gas-ring and electric oven. Next to this are cupboard with double-sink. At the left side is also cupboard with a built in freeze and microwave oven. In the second part of this room is the table with four chairs. This table is at the right wall, by the left wall is a small case, on which is a TV and next to is a small table on which is the stitcher. Under the sink is a bin.

In the hall a built in case, on the left side of the door. In front of the door are two doors by the bathroom and by the toilet. Between this doors is a mirror. On the left side are the doors to the living room and to the kitchen, between this doors is a fridge, in the right wall are the doors to the bedrooms.

Holidays

You can spent holidays in many ways. You can make a trip with travel agency - go aroud or travel trough our republic or you can go by auto-stop or by bus, by train, by your own car or by bicycle or when you have good condition you can go by foot.

At firs I’ll talking about travelling with travel agency. When you want to travel about, and you don’t have any worries you can choice a travel agency. At first you visit the travel agency and take a catalogue of trips, because you need time to choice the best trip for you. Then you go to the travel agency and pay the advance payment, usually 25 % of full price. You must choice the type of hotel, because for one trip you usually have several types of hotels, the different is in the quality and, when you make trip to the sea also the distance from the sea. Sometime you have a selection of meals - you can have no meals in the price, you can have two meals in the day usually it is breakfast and the evening meal, and you can have in the price tree meals of course. When you want to have a single room than you must pay a little bit more. In hotel in the entrance room is the hotel reception, where the receptionist give you the room key. There are two main types of trips - the cultural trip to well.-known historic places, seeing nice architecture, to seeing sights and famous paintings and sculptures; and the other type of trips are the recreation stay - you can stay in mountains or seaside resorts. You can have the stay with sports or education program. I prefer the cultural trips, because I hate the boring lying on the beach and when you have nothing else to do than sunbathing or swimming.

But now I’ll talking about staying at the seaside. You can lie on the beach - usually you lie on towel, on bath tower or on deck-chair. The children can built the sandstone with the spade and bucket. The beach from the other places sometimes separate the sea wall. On beach are public showers, the beach huts, some shops. The harbour separate from the sea piers. The swimmers can rescue the lifeguard. When you travel to the mountains you can hitch-hiking or watch wild life. And I forgotten say that most popular places are Mediterranean, especially Majorca and Menorca, then Greece, Italy, French Riviera, Spain - Costa Brava, And also the places in North Africa, Tunis and Egypt.

Other type of spending holidays is when you travel without any travel agency, many people thing, that this way is more romantic and non-commercial. It is also my opinion, but I’m little bit indolent, but this holidays I prepare the trip with my boyfriend to the south of our republic. We borrow the tent by her sister and I borrow the sleeping-bag by my sister. I love camping since I was a small girl, in these times I was a member of tourisctic club and we made the weekend trips to the nature. We will stall in the camp site, because in the world nature it is usually prohibited.

The other very popular type of spending holidays is holiday brigade. This is popular especially between student, because it is known that every student is poor. This holidays I’m going to work in the bank for one month, in the July.

This year’s holidays will have two parts - the brigade in July and in the August I’ll spent in two ways - first two weeks I spent on the dance sport concentration and, how I just said with my boyfriend in nature.

Health

Medical care of any type in our country is free of charge, although there are now many private doctors. We don’t pay for prescription or for some medicines. But for other medicines, especially for those from abroad, we must pay.

For a long time the state has been looking after each of its citizens - even before birth - under the scheme called Mother and Child Care. There are medical check-ups before the child is born and maternity ward services. As to financial help after giving births mothers get benefits for three years after the birth of a child. For the first 26 weeks she gets 90 per cent of her pay and for the rest of her maternity leave she gets fewer benefits.

Then comes medical and social care during the pre-school and school age, up to old age. The term "free medical care" includes any type of medical treatment - from seeing your doctor because of common cold to the most complicated operation. The Health insurance system is undergoing some changes at present. Employers pay health insurance for their employees but everybody can pay extra money for his/her health insurance. Private people must buy their health insurance themselves.

If we fall ill or if we have an accident, we go to the Health Centre, Policlinic, Hospital or to some Private Doctor. Many factories and offices have their own doctors. To improve the situation and promote the competition we can choose our doctors now.

Illnesses can be classified as light, heavy, fatal ones, infectious, short or long ones, injuries as light, heavy, serious, lethal ones etc. However it’s impossible to qualify everything as illness, sickness or disease. In case of light disorders or ailments we usually say : I feel unwell, I feel seedy or dizzy, I feel sick, I have a headache, I have a cold etc.

We cannot underrate any kind of illness. A patient getting over a feverish sickness without taking to ( staying in ) bed takes a risk, as it usually leaves traces sometimes very dangerous ones.

Each person should undergo a regular check-up at last once a year. However we usually go to see our doctor when we don t feel well or have a temperature. There are various types of medical treatment for our different types of troubles. Doctor may ask you to strip to the waist before he/she examines your chest and throat. They check our blood pressure, feel the pulse or put our blood or urine through lab-tests to take for example a blood count. They look down our throat, see our tongue and listen to our heart and lungs. Sometimes they may X-ray our lungs or bones. We must go through many types of vaccination during our lives. Dentists may check our teeth and sometimes pull out one of them or drill and fill them. For older people they sometimes fit bridges on their teeth or make dentures. Doctors usually prescribe some medicines to us - pills, antibiotics, gargling, eye-wash, sleeping pills, ointments or they tell us to go on a diet. After operations, scars remain on our bodies.

We can suffer from various illnesses beginning with common children diseases such as : chicken-pox, mumps, measles, scarlet fever, otitis, tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, which are a scourge for children of kindergarten and school age. But owing to vaccination and hygiene, diseases like diphtheria, measles, infantile paralysis, hepatitis aren’t a serious danger for them any more.

We usually suffer from common infections such as cold, flu (influenza), tonsillitis, indigestion, diarrhoea or constipation. Thanks to new and effective medicaments like various kinds of antibiotics even these feverish diseases are no more dangerous to life. A patient usually has to stay in bed, drink warm tea with lemon and honey, perspire, take pills, drops or vitamins, test his temperature and sleep as much as possible. However the situation may sometimes be more serious and needs special treatment in hospital, e.g. heart attack, appendicitis, breaking an arm or leg, animal or snake bite, severe bleeding, poisoning, unconsciousness or in case of some real dangerous diseases such as tuberculosis, anaemia, pneumonia, leukaemia, diabetes, hepatitis etc. The doctors care must be very attentive because human life is in danger. It is the same with all possible operations and surgical interferences. The biggest threat are insidious diseases like cancer or encephalitis whose virus is transferred by ticks. The last world threat is AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) which cannot be cured. One must protect himself from such a disease by increased caution and by observing hygienic laws and advice.